Meet Our Patients from the 2016 Pacemaker Trip

Written by: Jodi Grahl, Director of Gyecology, General Surgery, and Pacemaker Programs

As 2016 draws to a close, we at Solidarity Bridge are reflecting on the gifts of our final mission trip of the year. This year’s seven missions took us from the Andean mountains in La Paz to the eastern lowlands of Santa Cruz and many places in between, including Cochabamba, Punata, and Tiquipaya. These missions brought opportunities to expand local training, equipping and empowerment in each of our year-round programs. But, most importantly, they offered us the chance to meet some of the individuals whose lives are touched and even saved along our journey. Our most recent Pacemaker Program trip to Santa Cruz offered just such an opportunity, which I’m delighted to share with you!

Our 2016 Pacemaker Program Trip brought U.S. missioner Dr. Joseph Wu, an electrophysiologist (specialist in heart rhythm diseases) from UCLA Medical Center, to Santa Cruz to work alongside Bolivian partners at the San Juan de Dios Hospital. The trip was part of the process of integrating St. Jude Medical, a new corporate donor, into our Pacemaker Program. Implants were limited to morning hours, so Dr. Wu and I spent afternoons accompanying our local social worker, Carmen Salses, on home visits to meet our patients and their families. Here are just a few of their stories:

Honoria, age 68, speaks Quechua, so our local staff member, Ariel, interpreted to Spanish for our visit. Honoria raised seven children in a remote part of the state with no accessible schools. Her children now work as day laborers or housekeepers to support their own families and contribute a small amount each month to Honoraria for food. Honoraria told us how much she dislikes being dependent on her children. Once she recovers her health, she looks forward to getting back to supporting herself by selling products she buys in the wholesale markets on the streets of Santa Cruz.

Honoria’s youngest son built the room seen here for his mother. The wooden structure on the right serves as her kitchen. The property has water hook-up, and they are saving to eventually build a bathroom.

We visited Honoria in her home the day before her surgery. This photo was taken two days later, the morning after her implant. Implant patients spend one night in the hospital, and return a week later for follow-up. They then receive instructions regarding the pacemaker monitoring schedule, which requires them to return to the Solidarity Bridge pacemaker clinic at least once a year for the rest of their lives.

At the home of Roberta, her large family was grateful for our visit, which allowed them to ask numerous questions about their mother’s implant and care. Roberta was especially relieved to know she would be able to return to the fields to tend to her cows, which she has been too breathless to do for the past year.

In addition to gathering the standard socioeconomic data compiled for all Solidarity Bridge patients, our social worker Carmen carried out an additional interview as part of a five-year pacemaker follow-up study currently underway in conjunction with the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

We also traveled to the home of Fidelina, whose three sons showed us their tire shop located in the front of the home. Fidelina had received her implant the day before, and was still recovering in the hospital.

Francisca, 55, is a skilled hat maker. In addition to raising five children on her own, she takes care of her ailing 78-year-old mother. Francisca is also deaf and mute, which added some concerns during her implant due to her inability to use her hands to sign during the procedure. Patients are generally awake during a pacemaker implant, and can tell the doctor if they are uncomfortable. In this case, we relied on Francisca’s facial expressions to know she was OK.

Dr. Wu and our local colleagues, Dr. Gomez and Dr. Cuellar, took advantage of every spare moment between cases to “talk shop,” especially around opportunities and needs in Bolivia in the electrophysiology field. The San Juan de Dios Hospital is in the midst of important capital investments in its cardiology center, and the doctors are eager to expand training to take optimal advantage of the new equipment.

Dr. Wu was especially grateful for the opportunity offered by the home visits. As he expressed to me in one of our long taxi rides back to town, helping people in need it is why he became a doctor, but he rarely has the opportunity to see up-close how his work impacts lives, not just of patients but entire families. We are also grateful to you, Dr. Wu, for giving so much of yourself this week for these and so many more families!

Over the past 15 years, more than 2000 pacemakers have been implanted through our pacemaker program. The vast majority are implanted by our Bolivian partner cardiologists. We occasionally organize small mission teams to advance training in a specific procedure or simply to expand relationships among U.S. and Bolivian surgical peers and with in-kind donors.

Our Pacemaker program is one of five areas in which Solidarity Bridge helps to provide advanced and life-saving care to Bolivians living in poverty. In a spirit of mutuality, we are working hand-in-hand with Bolivians to create a healthier future. Please join us in this work by making a donation today.